Search Results (22)

Beverages, particularly sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), pose a significant public health concern globally. Changing eating habits among Pakistani young adults have led to higher sugary drink consumption, underscoring the need for a suitable cultural assessment tool. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 381 university students aged 18–26 years from three major cities of Pakistan. Following World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, the original Beverage Intake Questionnaire (BEVQ-15) was modified by removing four items (including alcoholic beverages), adding two culturally relevant types (flavored milk and refreshing drinks), and converting measurement units to milliliters, resulting in a 13-item Beverage Intake Questionnaire-Pakistan (BEVQ-PK). Validity was assessed by comparing BEVQ-PK1 (test) with three 24 h dietary recalls. Test–retest reliability was evaluated after a 14-day interval by comparing BEVQ-PK1 (test) and BEVQ-PK2 (retest). Analyses included descriptive statistics, paired sample t-tests, Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC), Bland–Altman plots, and Spearman’s correlations. The BEVQ-PK (13-item) demonstrated moderate to strong validity (r = 0.2–0.8, p < 0.001) and strong reliability (r = 0.5–0.9, p < 0.001). Most beverage categories showed no significant intake differences between test and retest. Tea/coffee with milk was the most frequently consumed beverage, followed by soft drinks and green/black tea. Overall, BEVQ-PK is a valid and reliable tool for assessing SSB intake among Pakistani university students and can support future nutrition and public health research. Full article

Functional foods are gaining increasing prominence in emerging markets as consumers respond to growing health concerns, urbanization, and evolving dietary patterns. However, little is known about how consumers in developing economies interpret safety-focused communication, nutritional claims, and packaging innovation when evaluating functional foods. Pakistan represents an important context due to its rapidly growing functional food sector, weak regulatory environment, and heightened consumer concerns about product safety. This study examines how safety-focused communication, nutritional claims, and innovative packaging influence consumer trust, perceived product safety, and purchase intention within Pakistan’s developing functional food sector. Data were collected from 418 consumers across five major Pakistani cities and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The results show that safety communication, nutritional claims, and packaging innovation significantly enhance perceived product safety and trust, with trust emerging as the strongest predictor of purchase intention. Moreover, communication highlighting technological advancements in packaging strengthens trust and improves perceptions of product quality. Consumer trust mediates the relationship between marketing communication and purchase intention, while health consciousness moderates these effects. The results underscore the vital role of transparent and credible marketing communication in building consumer trust and encouraging the adoption of functional foods in emerging markets. Managerially, integrating explicit safety and packaging cues into marketing strategies can enhance consumer acceptance, while policymakers should ensure regulatory oversight of nutritional and packaging-related claims. Full article

(1) Background: While Hong Kong is renowned for being a multicultural city, its South and Southeast Asian population has experienced disadvantages in various aspects of life, particularly career development. This study adopts the Systems Theory Framework (STF) to investigate the school-to-work transition of Pakistani, Nepalese, Filipino, and Indian youths in the Hong Kong Chinese context. (2) Methods: A qualitative approach using individual and focus group interviews was employed to uncover and critically examine educational and career aspirations and contextual factors in the transition pathways of educational and career advancement experienced by these ethnic groups. (3) Results: Findings show that career aspirations among South and Southeast Asian youths undergoing the school-to-work transition are comparatively lower than those of their counterparts who remain in secondary education. This disparity is attributed to a range of contextual factors, particularly shortcomings in education policy and limited cultural competence within Hong Kong Chinese society, both of which contribute to the erosion of occupational outlook among these underrepresented groups. (4) Conclusions: This study demonstrates the critical impact of contextual factors on the ethnic inequality of school-to-work transition, which are more overwhelming than can be overcome by personal and family efforts. If these issues are not addressed, achieving racial equality and equal opportunity in school-to-work transition will remain a persistent challenge. Full article

Air pollution, outstanding particulate matter (PM_2.5), poses severe risks to human health and the environment in densely populated urban areas. Accurate short-term forecasting of PM_2.5 concentrations is therefore crucial for timely public health advisories and effective mitigation strategies. This work proposes a hybrid approach that combines machine learning models with STL decomposition to provide precise short-term PM_2.5 predictions. Daily PM_2.5 series from four major Pakistani cities—Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, and Peshawar—are first pre-processed to handle missing values, outliers, and variance instability. The data are then decomposed via seasonal-trend decomposition using Loess (STL), which explicitly exploits the symmetric and recurrent structure of seasonal patterns. Each decomposed component (trend, seasonality, and remainder) is modeled independently using an ensemble of statistical and machine learning approaches. Forecasts are combined through a weighted aggregation scheme that balances bias–variance trade-offs and preserves the distributional consistency. The final recombined forecasts provide one-day-ahead PM_2.5 predictions with associated uncertainty measures. The model evaluation employs multiple statistical accuracy metrics, distributional diagnostics, and out-of-sample validation to assess its performance. The results demonstrate that the proposed framework consistently outperforms conventional benchmark models, yielding robust, interpretable, and probabilistically coherent forecasts. This study demonstrates how periodic and recurrent seasonal structure decomposition and probabilistic ensemble methods enhance the statistical modeling of environmental time series, offering actionable insights for urban air quality management. Full article

Effective institutional and technological development are key to governance in smart cities. This study investigates the fundamental complexities of institutional and technological innovations in smart cities. A city’s innovation capabilities depend significantly on its technology and implementation capacity. This study suggests that institutional and technological innovation serve a role that moderates the relationships between smart city governance, stakeholder satisfaction, and crime rate. Multiple regression models were developed by surveying 496 Pakistani citizens with a questionnaire. Using stakeholders and innovation theories, analyzing the relationships between smart governance, stakeholder satisfaction, and city crime rates reveals a moderating role of institutional and technological innovation. The findings showed that institutional and technological innovations have strengthened the stakeholder satisfaction level while weakening the crime rate in a smart city. Full article

Background/Objectives: Obesity is currently considered a public health problem in both developed and developing countries. Gender- and age-specific body mass index (BMI) growth standards or references are particularly effective in monitoring the global obesity pandemic. This study aimed to report disparities in age-, gender- and ethnic-specific statistical estimates of overweight and obesity for 2–18 years aged Pakistani children and adolescents using the World Health Organization (WHO), the Center for Disease Control (CDC) 2000 references, the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) and Pakistani references for BMI. Methods: The study used secondary data of 10,668 pediatric population, aged 2–18 years. Demographic information like age (years), gender, city and anthropometric examinations, i.e., height (cm) and weight (kg) were used in this study. The recommended age- and gender-specific BMI cut-offs of the WHO, CDC 2000 and the IOTF references were used to classify the children sampled as overweight and obese. For the Pakistani reference, overweight and obesity were defined as BMI-for-age ≥ 85th percentile and BMI-for-age ≥ 95th percentile, respectively. Cohen’s κ statistic was used to assess the agreement between the international references and local study population references in the classification of overweight/obesity. Results: The statistical estimates (%) of the participants for overweight and obesity varied according to the reference used: WHO (7.4% and 2.2%), CDC (4.9% and 2.1%), IOTF (5.2% and 2.0%) and Pakistan (8.8% and 6.0%), respectively; suggesting higher levels of overweight and obesity prevalence when local study references are used. The Kappa statistic shows a moderate to excellent agreement (κ ≥ 0.6) among three international references when classifying child overweight and obesity and poor agreement between local references and the WHO (0.45, 0.52), CDC (0.25, 0.50) and IOTF references (0.16, 0.31), for overweight and obesity, respectively. Conclusions: The results of the study showed a visible difference in the estimates of excess body weight after applying the WHO, CDC, IOTF and local BMI references to the study population. Based on the disparity results and poor agreement between international references and the local study reference, this study recommends using local BMI references in identifying children with overweight and obesity. Full article

The urbanization challenges in the megacities of Pakistan necessitate the implementation of comprehensive sustainable development practices to effectively address contemporary urban issues. Transit-oriented development (TOD) is a globally accepted device in achieving sustainable urban development through transport and land use integration. Evaluating the levels of TOD built in present conditions is essential for productive TOD planning, as it enables the prioritization of development interferences. In this context, we utilized a methodology to evaluate the levels of TOD (TOD-ness) present near transportation nodes through a TOD index. It utilizes ArcGIS and spatial multi-criteria analysis (SMCA) to determine the extent of TOD-supporting qualities around a transit node and identifies areas for potential improvements in transit orientation. The methodology was executed in the megacity of Lahore, situated in Pakistan. A TOD index was computed for areas surrounding the 26 LRT and 27 BRT stations along two existing corridors. The findings suggest that the TOD concept is feasible for Pakistani megacities, and urban decision makers can utilize the TOD index results to facilitate urban- or regional-level planning, funding, and investment policies. Furthermore, these findings offer valuable insights into the transportation obstacles and potential opportunities in similar developing cities in South Asia. Full article

Structural variations such as copy number variants (CNVs) have been associated with multiple autoimmune diseases. In this study, we explored the association of the Fc gamma receptor 3B gene (FCGR3B) copy number variation (CNV) with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) susceptibility and related serological traits in the Pakistani population. We also performed a meta-analysis of four published FCGR3B CNV studies along with the current study. A total of 927 subjects (597 RA cases, 330 healthy controls) were recruited from three rheumatology centers in Pakistan. Anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) antibodies and rheumatoid factor (RF) were measured in RA patients. FCGR3B copy number was assayed using the TaqMan^® CN assay (Hs04211858_cn, Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA) and the copy number was estimated by using CopyCaller^® software (version 2.1; Applied Biosystems, USA). Logistic regression was applied to calculate the odds ratio (OR) of RA risk associated with FCGR3B CNV using sex and age as covariates in R. Meta-analysis on four previously published studies and the current study was performed using the random-effect model. We observed a significant association between FCGR3B copy number < 2 and RA susceptibility (OR = 1.53; 95% CI: 1.05 to 2.22; p = 0.0259) and anti-CCP seropositivity (OR 2.56; 95% CI: 1.34 to 4.89; p = 0.0045). A non-significant association of FCGR3B copy number < 2 was also observed between increased rheumatoid factor (RF) seropositivity (OR = 1.74; 95% CI:0.93 to 3.26; p = 0.0816). Meta-analysis on 13,915 subjects (7005 RA cases and 6907 controls) also showed significant association of copy number < 2 with the increased risk of RA (OR = 1.30; 95% CI: 1.07 to 1.56; p = 0.00671). FCGR3B copy number < 2 is associated with increased RA risk and anti-CCP seropositivity. Full article

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a human coronaviruses that emerged in China at Wuhan city, Hubei province during December 2019. Subsequently, SARS-CoV-2 has spread worldwide and caused millions of deaths around the globe. Several compounds and vaccines have been proposed to tackle this crisis. Novel recommended in silico approaches have been commonly used to screen for specific SARS-CoV-2 inhibitors of different types. Herein, the phytochemicals of Pakistani medicinal plants (especially Artemisia annua) were virtually screened to identify potential inhibitors of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease enzyme. The X-ray crystal structure of the main protease of SARS-CoV-2 with an N3 inhibitor was obtained from the protein data bank while A. annua phytochemicals were retrieved from different drug databases. The docking technique was carried out to assess the binding efficacy of the retrieved phytochemicals; the docking results revealed that several phytochemicals have potential to inhibit the SARS-CoV-2 main protease enzyme. Among the total docked compounds, the top-10 docked complexes were considered for further study and evaluated for their physiochemical and pharmacokinetic properties. The top-3 docked complexes with the best binding energies were as follows: the top-1 docked complex with a −7 kcal/mol binding energy score, the top-2 docked complex with a −6.9 kcal/mol binding energy score, and the top-3 docked complex with a −6.8 kcal/mol binding energy score. These complexes were subjected to a molecular dynamic simulation analysis for further validation to check the dynamic behavior of the selected top-complexes. During the whole simulation time, no major changes were observed in the docked complexes, which indicated complex stability. Additionally, the free binding energies for the selected docked complexes were also estimated via the MM-GB/PBSA approach, and the results revealed that the total delta energies of MMGBSA were −24.23 kcal/mol, −26.38 kcal/mol, and −25 kcal/mol for top-1, top-2, and top-3, respectively. MMPBSA calculated the delta total energy as −17.23 kcal/mol (top-1 complex), −24.75 kcal/mol (top-2 complex), and −24.86 kcal/mol (top-3 complex). This study explored in silico screened phytochemicals against the main protease of the SARS-CoV-2 virus; however, the findings require an experimentally based study to further validate the obtained results. Full article

The Solid Waste Management (SWM) sector is given a low-priority by the Pakistani Government, with the climate change agenda of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) being a priority-3 only, similar to other developing countries. Although sustained efforts have been made during the last decade to strengthen the SWM sector, all actions were focused on manual sweeping and waste collection without integrating waste treatment and disposal options. In this respect, the current model of SWM in the country was analyzed for efficient future planning to strengthen the sector waste management regime in line with the targets of Nationally Determined Contributors (NDCs) and SDGs. An assessment of the SWM sector was performed in eleven major cities of Pakistan, applying Waste-aware benchmarking indicators as strategic tools. The current study highlights the strengths and weaknesses of concerned local municipalities and Waste Management Companies (WMCs) along with interventions to reduce Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) emission targets by 2030. Proposed interventions from the environment and economy perspective will generate revenue to cater for up to 29% of the operational costs, and this will be an important step towards 100% self-sufficiency in the SWM sector. Full article

Height-for-age Z-score (HAZ) curves are widely used for detecting children with stunting. The aim of this study was to provide smoothed HAZ growth reference values and their curves for Pakistani children and adolescents aged 2–18 years. The prevalence of stunting in Pakistani children was determined. A total of 10,668 healthy Pakistani participants were included. Information related to age, sex, city of residence and height (cm) was used. Age- and sex-specific smoothed HAZ growth reference values and associated graphs were obtained using the lambda-mu-sigma (LMS) method. The prevalence of stunting was calculated by applying WHO 2007 and USCDC 2000 height-for-age references and local reference of the study population. In both sexes, the smoothed HAZ curves increased with age. For 2 and 3 years of age, the height values of the girls were greater than those of the boys. The boys were then taller than the girls. Comparing our median height (z = 0) growth reference data from WHO, USCDC and corresponding data from other countries, Pakistani children and adolescents have significantly different reference values than their counterparts in the reference group. A marked overestimation of the prevalence of stunting was observed (10.8% and 17.9% according to WHO and USCDC, respectively) compared to the local reference (3.0%). It is recommended that the prevalence of stunting in children and adolescents is determined by applying local height growth references to plan health strategies and treatments in the local population. Full article

This paper explores the barriers to supporting South Asian (Pakistani, Nepalese and Indian) migrant children with special needs and their families encountered navigating Hong Kong’s special needs system and accessing education and healthcare services. It adopts concepts of stigma and disability rights. It draws on semi-structured interviews with fifteen South Asian children and young people with special needs (age 5–21; M = 10; F = 5) and their families, and seven professional practitioners based on the qualitative descriptive method. Informants experienced intersecting stigmatization that included (1) institutional exclusion, (2) daily life microaggressions, and (3) misunderstandings and a lack of awareness education. Simultaneously, some were empowered through (4) support and accommodation, and (5) spiritual support from religion. This paper reveals a paradox embodied by Hong Kong; it is an Asian multicultural city committed to embracing the vision of disability inclusion while failing to ensure necessary support to reduce the stigma experienced by culturally diverse children with a disability. It makes recommendations based on a socioecological framework and concludes that concerted efforts by relevant authorities and organizations should be made to reduce stigma by taking into consideration the intersecting stigmas, specific resources unique to migrant communities, disability rights and cultural sensitivity. Full article

Despite growing recognition of solutions to water scarcity challenges, decision-makers across the world continue to face barriers to effective implementation of water planning, governance and management. This is evident in the cases of Lahore and Karachi in the Indus Basin in Pakistan and illustrated through the experiences of the provincial government departments and utilities. Water scarcity and associated challenges are continuing to impose significant costs on these cities, which continue to grow as water availability further declines, demand increases, water quality deteriorates, and infrastructure degrades. A team of Australian water experts was commissioned by the Australian Water Partnership to diagnose urban water challenges and identify priority actions for improved water security, in collaboration with Pakistani partners. This paper presents the outcomes of that work. This includes a synthesis of the published literature and data on the geographical, climatic, and water scarcity contexts of both Karachi and Lahore. It then identifies responses to water insecurity that have been considered or implemented in the past and the barriers that have inhibited the effectiveness of these efforts. Finally, it presents actions within five priority action areas that Pakistani stakeholders have identified as being most practical and impactful for improving water security outcomes. Full article

Urban sprawl is a particular pattern of the street network and land use. The relationship between street networks and sprawl has been discussed by urban scholars in developed and high-income countries. Nevertheless, there is a lack of research on the relationships between street connectivity and urban travel behavior, particularly among emerging markets. This paper aims to study correlations between urban mobility and street-length density as an indicator for assessing the compactness of an area by developing two hierarchical regression models and controlling for socioeconomic variables in two large Pakistani cities: Lahore and Rawalpindi. Moreover, this paper defines optimal cutoff values for street-length density and active transport. Finally, three chi-square tests were conducted to assess the differences between using different mode choices by people living in sprawled neighborhoods versus compact neighborhoods. Our findings confirm the use of different transport modes depending on the purpose of the trip (commuting or non-commuting), length of trip (within or outside the neighborhood), and starting point (sprawled neighborhood or compact area). We also find a positive correlation between street-length density around homes and commuting distance, the frequency of public transport use, and the use of private motor vehicles in commuting trips in the two cities. Street-length density around workplaces is correlated with commuting distance, the frequency of public transport use, and the use of private motor vehicles when socioeconomic variables (including age, daily activity, and monthly income) are controlled for in the two models. The behavior of Pakistani residents changes with a street-length density of 137 and 144.7 m/m² for homes and workplaces, respectively, in terms of using active mobility. Full article

The neighborhood effect on keeping non-commuting trips inside neighborhoods has not yet been investigated in developing countries. The modeling of non-commuting trips inside neighborhoods helps understand how to avoid unnecessary journeys by car into different parts of the city. This paper, therefore, attempts to clarify (1) the similarities and differences in the socioeconomic characteristics and the perceptions of people in sprawled and compact neighborhoods, (2) correlations between, on the one hand, the choice of destinations of non-commuting trips for shopping and entertainment activities and, on the other, the socioeconomic features, travel behavior, and perceptions of residents in the two large Pakistani cities of Lahore and Rawalpindi, (3) the similarities and differences in the determinants of non-commuting destinations inside neighborhoods in compact and sprawled districts. The paper develops four Binary Logistic (BL) regression models, with two models for each type of neighborhood. The findings show that trips to shopping areas inside compact districts are correlated with a sense of belonging to the neighborhood, frequency of public transport use, residential location, and mode choice of non-commuting trips to destinations both inside and outside the neighborhood. On the other hand, the number of non-commuting trips, mode choice for non-commuting trips outside the neighborhood, frequency of public transport use, the attractiveness of shops, and monthly income (please see the Note) are significant determinants for trips to the shopping area in sprawled districts. Age, gender, possession of a driver’s license, income, number of non-commuting trips, mode choice for non-commuting trips outside of the neighborhood, car ownership, and attractiveness of shops in a neighborhood are correlated with trips to entertainment locations inside the neighborhood in compact districts. Finally, the attractiveness of shops, quality of social and recreational facilities, a sense of belonging to a neighborhood, choice of residential location, gender, age, possession of a driver’s license, number of cars in the household, and income are determinants of trips to entertainment locations in sprawled districts. A chi-square test confirms the differences across gender, daily activity, monthly income, frequency of public transport use, residential location choice, and the quality of social and recreational facilities for sprawled and compact districts in Pakistan. Full article